Matt Cutts Throws Light on How to Let Google Recognize the Mobile Version of Your Website!

There are ways by which you can make smartphone users land up on the mobile version of your website and direct the desktop users to the desktop version. Google's Head of Search Spam, Matt Cutts discussed in the recent Webmaster Help video, how webmasters can optimize for the mobile web.

The question posted was:

Is there a way to tell Google there is a mobile version of a page, so it can show the alternate page in mobile search results? Or similarly, that a page is responsive and the same URL works on mobile?

To this, Cutts replied, that there are a number of ways by which webmasters can go ahead with the issue:

Responsive Website Design: A responsive website design can help webmasters deliver the same page to both mobile and desktop users. You just have to make sure that you don't block the Javascript and CSS. Javascript and CSS adjust in both mobile and desktop by fitting in the resolution of both the devices.

Separate Versions of Website for Mobile and Desktop: Matt suggests to have separate URLs for mobile and desktop versions of the website. You can do this by branding the desktop version with rel=”alternate” and the mobile version with rel=”canonical”. With the bi-directional links Google can direct the users to the right destination.

Redirecting Smartphone Agents: Redirecting the smartphone agents from the desktop version to the smartphone version can also resolve the issue. According to Matt, webmasters should ensure that googlebot is not blocked so that it can return the correct URLs to the users. To make it simpler, you just have to treat Googlebot as a desktop user and Googlebot Mobile as a smartphone user.

By following these simple steps webmasters can let Google distinguish between the mobile and desktop versions of their website. You can also log in to Google Developers to get a deeper insight into building smartphone optimized websites.

Matt Cutts Throws Light on How to Let Google Recognize the Mobile Version of Your Website!, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

Navneet Kaushal is the founder and CEO of PageTraffic, an SEO Agency in India with offices in Chicago, Mumbai and London. A leading search strategist, Navneet helps clients maintain an edge in search engines and the online media. Navneet's expertise has established PageTraffic as one of the most awarded and successful search marketing agencies.

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